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Historical Lineup Challenge, Wk. I - Less Than 20 PPG

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Stark

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NBA chatter around here has been relatively slow for obvious reasons, figured I'd start something up to generate some discussion around historical aspects of basketball.

Build the best lineup possible from all the players in NBA history, with one overall restriction: the player cannot ever have averaged 20+ PPG in a season.

Here's my first lineup:

PG - '94-'95 John Stockton
SG - '14-'15 Kyle Korver
SF - '19-'20 Ben Simmons
PF - '15-'16 Draymond Green
C - '16-'17 Marc Gasol

This unit is all about ball movement. Outside of Korver, all four guys are excellent distributors relative to their position. Korver (.492) had one of the best three point shooting seasons of all time in 2014-15, and Stockton (.449), Green (.388), and Gasol (.388) were far from slouches from the outside in the seasons I chose for them as well. Simmons kills you from the outside but gives you a 'LeBron-lite' kind of player in terms of driving and dishing ability. Simmons, Green, and Gasol are all well above average defenders, Korver was a solid team defender at his peak, and Stockton, while not incredibly physically gifted, wouldn't kill you out there (he also averaged 2.4 SPG in '94-'95).

Your turn, there are plenty of fantastic NBA players out there that actually never averaged 20 PPG in a season if you do a bit of digging.
 
PG: '95-96 Terrell Brandon
My first favorite Cav was actually incredible for a short stretch. He sniffed the 50-40-90 club this season with 47-39-89. Averaged 6.5 assists and under 2 turnovers in Mike Fratello's offense. This Cavs team literally played at the slowest pace of all-time (82.3). He averaged 33 points and 11 assists per 100 possessions.

SG: '07-08 Manu Ginobili
Another one of my all-time favorite players. His raw numbers don't really speak to his true impact on those championship Spurs teams. This was the highest-scoring season of his career coming off a championship in '07. Very few guys in the history of the game have been better playmakers.

SF: '19-20 Duncan Robinson
Took 88.6% of his shots behind the arc this year, and made nearly 4/game at a 44.8% clip. He'll have no issue getting open looks with Brandon and Ginobili in the backcourt.

PF: '03-04 Andrei Kirilenko
For like three years, this guy was one of the most amazingly versatile players on the planet. This was his only All-Star season. He averaged 1.9 steals and 2.8 blocks to go along with 16.5 points and 8.1 rebounds. He was also a serviceable shooter.

C: '76-77 Bill Walton
One of the greatest players on all-time when he was healthy. He won the Finals MVP in 1977 capping off a tremendous season in which he averaged 18.6 points 14.4 rebounds 3.8 assists and 3.2 blocks per game in the regular season and 18.2 points 15.2 rebounds 5.5 assists and 3.4 blocks per game in the postseason.
 
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Am I allowed to count Sabonis? If so, I need 97-98 Sabonis. But I'd love to have 88 Sabonis too.
 
PG: 2003-04 Chauncey Billups
SF: 2003-04 Tayshaun Prince
PF: 2003-04 Rasheed Wallace
C: 2003-04 Ben Wallace

That's four out of a championship starting five right there. The only thing you need is a shooting guard, and you come oh so close to being able to add in Richard Hamilton too -- in 14 seasons he had one season with exactly 20.0 points and another season with 20.1 points, only times he made 20.

But I guess I will take for SG 07-08 Manu Ginobili -- could have averaged 25 PPG if he hadn't been being held to 30 MPG on a Duncan/Parker Spurs team.

That Detroit team with Ginobili swapped in for Hamilton is for sure a championship squad.
 
I like this concept! PG and C are pretty easy in my book. The rest get a little difficult

PG: John Stockton.
He's one of the best period but add in he never scored 20ppg in a season and he's the hands down winner.

SG: Dennis Johnson
Not my favorite pick of the 5 but he was a terrific defensive player. A member of the Sonic's championship team coached by Lenny Wilkens then went onto a lot of championship success with the Celtics in the 1980s.

SF: Dennis Rodman
He's playing out of position a little but when he was in Detroit he was a small forward. As displayed in ESPN's documentary "The Last Dance" Rodman routine guarded Jordan during his Detroit days.

PF: Jack Sikma
Not flashy but steady. He was a young contributor to the Sonic's teams that went to back to back finals, winning one. Also, that hair!

C: Bill Russell
He is arguably one of the 5 best centers of all time. A defensive monster who anchored 11 championship teams. How can you pick anyone else?

Honorable mention: Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Dikembe Mutombo
 
I like this concept! PG and C are pretty easy in my book. The rest get a little difficult

PG: John Stockton.
He's one of the best period but add in he never scored 20ppg in a season and he's the hands down winner.

SG: Dennis Johnson
Not my favorite pick of the 5 but he was a terrific defensive player. A member of the Sonic's championship team coached by Lenny Wilkens then went onto a lot of championship success with the Celtics in the 1980s.

SF: Dennis Rodman
He's playing out of position a little but when he was in Detroit he was a small forward. As displayed in ESPN's documentary "The Last Dance" Rodman routine guarded Jordan during his Detroit days.

PF: Jack Sikma
Not flashy but steady. He was a young contributor to the Sonic's teams that went to back to back finals, winning one. Also, that hair!

C: Bill Russell
He is arguably one of the 5 best centers of all time. A defensive monster who anchored 11 championship teams. How can you pick anyone else?

Honorable mention: Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Dikembe Mutombo
I'd argue that peak Bill Walton was better than peak Bill Russell. He just could stop getting hurt. Led the Blazers to the only title in team history. That's why I chose him.
 
I'd argue that peak Bill Walton was better than peak Bill Russell. He just could stop getting hurt. Led the Blazers to the only title in team history. That's why I chose him.
"Your best ability is your availability" :chuckle:
 
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"Your best ability is your availability" :chuckle:
For sure, but for this exercise, we're just picking guys from a single season. So, I picked that '76-77 Walton Finals MVP season.
 
SG is the hardest position, scorer position, everyone will pick Ginobili (just saw that Derek picked him too).
 
Great thread...a lot of the best defensive players of all time fall into this category, so why not double down on defense and put Manu at the helm of a fun positionless lineup?

PG: 2010-11 Manu Ginobili
SG: 1985-86 Alvin Robertson
SF: 2007-08 Andre Iguodala
PF: 2003-04 Andrei Kirilenko
C: 2001-02 Ben Wallace
 

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